Clipped
by Ink Reservoir
Summary: Sasuke considers what his life would've been like had Naruto had won their fight at Valley of the End.
"What if I managed to bring you back the first time?" Naruto asks, and it's an innocent question to come after a long game of 'what if' scenarios, Sasuke hasn't seen Naruto in a couple weeks but they decided to sit down today for some tea. He hasn't thought about it, leaving the Village in and of itself was something he regretted because it was _wrong—_ trusting Orochimaru to give him power over the Village, but as far as the consequences of the other option would've been, Sasuke hasn't thought about it since he was seventeen and firmly against it.

"You mean, if you'd won the fight?"

"Yeah," Naruto says, with a small smile. "I'm almost sorry I didn't, but our bond wouldn't be as strong if I did, I don't think."

"I guess not."

The situation, in reverse, Naruto had been unconscious for it but Sasuke remembered it vividly, hovering over Naruto's face, Naruto's closed eyes—if it were him, he the one on the floor, unmoving, unconscious, like Itachi had left him just a few weeks prior, Naruto picking up his bruised and beaten body and attempting to carry him to the Leaf Village.

Did Naruto wake up alone or did someone else find him to bring him back?

Sasuke doesn't know, so he asks—it was Kakashi, Sasuke fills the older man in with his mind, his strong arms picking Sasuke up securely, Naruto limping at his side like Sasuke had limped from the scene, back through the forest, back through the gates.

He'd've woken in the hospital, aching, opening his eyes to greet the light. He doesn't know how long Naruto was out for, but he can almost feel the stinging in his eyes. Sakura'd probably be there to wrap her arms around him, to say she was so worried. He'd take it in blearily—he was always a slow waker. Naruto'd be there, maybe he'd talk, maybe he'd be silent, wrapped in bandages from the aftermath of Sasuke's blows and Kakashi, standing by the door, looking at him disapprovingly.

He turns his head to look around him, there's an ANBU officer at his side.

"They've assigned him to you to make sure you don't run away again," Kakashi says. Now, Sasuke might nod his agreement, but at the time, he would've been angry.

"Let me go!" he insists, the others in the room exchange glances, he stares at them all with wide eyes and clenched fists and starts shouting— "I want to _go!_ None of the training I've received here has helped me become strong enough to fight Itachi!"

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," Kakashi apologizes quietly, but Sasuke shakes his head, rises to his feet, the guard pushes him easily by his shoulders back down. Sasuke winces.

"It's not just to confine you," Kakashi adds. "It's also so Orochimaru doesn't attack you again."

"The one who attacked me was _Naruto,"_ Sasuke says. "I was leaving of my own will."

"Sasuke," Naruto finally interjects, because he has to interject. "I said that I'd bring you back even if I had to force you to, and I did."

The events start really sinking in. He _lost_. Naruto had been the stronger one—and why? Sasuke didn't know at the time about the Kyuubi. He'd try to fight again, guard detaining him each time, even with Orochimaru's mark Sasuke wouldn't be strong enough to defeat him.

"I promise to train you harder," Kakashi would say, and Sasuke's mind would comb through the last through months. The Chuunin Exams, training hard every day until he could no longer breathe, could no longer stand, Kakashi's voice telling him all the time that it wasn't _good enough_ yet—Orochimaru didn't lavish him with praise but he didn't hail criticism upon him either, always speaking as if Sasuke were at an important mark on a timeline to the future Orochimaru could see—

"You trained me as hard as you could and it wasn't enough."

"Give me another chance," Kakashi'd plead but no.

There would be no more chances. He'd try to escape, multiple times in the next few weeks, challenge Naruto to another fight, have his movements restrained—he'd stop talking to Seven. They'd visit him until he left the hospital and then some after that, knocking on the door to his house, but Sasuke wouldn't answer. The new Hokage says he can join a new team, Sasuke accepts and advances to Jonin. He tries to join ANBU but they won't let him, can't trust him, and Danzo wants his head.

Seven keeps trying to talk to him, Sasuke keeps his door shut. Maybe Itachi'd come back, but the Leaf's increased its security, learning from Sasuke's attempt to leave to watch its gates properly. There's eyes all him, all the time, when he trains, when he eats, when he sleeps. He stops leaving his house but Naruto doesn't stop knocking.

He wonders if Orochimaru will save him, but maybe Orochimaru wouldn't want him anymore.

"Wonder if you'd be better off than you are now," Naruto says. "You coulda helped us fight Pein and everything."

When Pein comes, Sasuke stays in his room. He doesn't care what happens to the Village, maybe if it's destroyed he can escape to kill Itachi.

"That'd be interesting, right?"

"Yeah…" Sasuke says, a breeze rippling the surface of his still full cup of tea. "I guess it'd be interesting."

He takes a sip. It's gone cold.

 **A/N:** Some vent writing. Will be getting back to Mending soon since exams are done now. Thanks to my friend uchihasavior on tumblr for the title!


End file.
